Two travel posts in one week! Trust me, I’m as surprised as you. But the little one is in a phase of big time napping so I’m taking full advantage of it. If you follow me on Instagram (shameless plug, but if you don’t then come find me! @downinthehollowblog) then you know that we recently went to Cartagena, Colombia for a destination wedding. Because we were there for just a few days and specifically for a wedding without ample time to explore the way we typically would on a trip, I’m not going to post a full travel guide as I don’t think I have enough to offer on that front. Maybe that means a second trip in order? In any case, I did want to provide a review of where we stayed in Cartagena, Casa del Coliseo, as I got a lot of questions/interest in it and you know I take hotel stays very seriously!
Casa del Coliso is inside The Walled City and is central to everything. The city itself isn’t too large and just about everything is within walking distance so we were only blocks away from everywhere we wanted or needed to go. And to be honest, we didn’t have a list of places we wanted to go because we wanted to use our time to just explore. But trust me when I say that Cartagena is a very explorable city with so many hidden gems!
I have no pictures of our rooms so you’ll have to take my word for it, but it was absolutely lovely. Huge bathroom with an open ceiling shower, an ultra-comfy bed, stocked mini fridge with local beers and wines and a balcony overlooking the city street below. One thing to know about the building itself is that is a former colonial house and there aren’t any elevators. Being that it is a very multi-level build, you can expect to take the stairs and there are a lot of them! But we didn’t find that to be a detraction. It actually made the building very unique and charming. The common rooms, of which there are two, flank opposite sides of the building with huge (and beautiful!) sitting areas, breakfast tables and balconies where you can also take your morning coffee and breakfast while taking in the city. Breakfast is served in the mornings and offer a traditional American breakfast or a traditional Colombian breakfast and obviously eating anything other than their traditional Colombian would be a mistake. Delicious! Fresh fruit water and snacks – including the most delicious fresh papaya – are available throughout the day as well. The pool is actually on the rooftop and you can order poolside service of drinks and snacks via Whatsapp. Adam and I had the pool to ourselves for the day when we got into town and just absolutely devoured papaya, fried plantains and mojitos.
To be honest, Casa del Coliseo was not our first choice but we wound up procrastinating booking our accommodations with everything we had going on at the beginning of the year but we truly wound up loving it. Here is a list of our original top picks in case you want a few other recommendations that were thoroughly vetted because you know how I roll and I obsess over hotels.
Happy travels!
XOXO,
Thessali
blogger travel guide Cartagena Cartagena Colombia Casa del Coliseo Colombia hotel recommendation south america travel the walled city travel guide
Leave a Reply